Mobile devices such as, for example, laptop computers, handheld devices, personal data assistance (PDA), data terminals, pocket personal computers and the like may include a processor and/or a computing platform. The processor and/or the computing platform may consume high battery power which may reduce the operation hours of such devices. In order to reduce the high power consumption from the battery, a power control mechanism to control power consumption of the processor may be used. The power control mechanism may reduce the power consumption by providing a lower voltage and/or a lower frequency to the processor and/or a computing platform. The low voltage may cause recoverable and/or unrecoverable errors in the processor and/or in a cache memory the computing platform.
The processor and/or the computing platform may include an on-die cache Memory. Random Access Memory (RAM) cells of the cache memory may limit the lowest possible voltage at which the processor may be operated. The RAM cells in on-die processor cache memories may be manufactured from devices designed with the smallest possible size supported by the fabrication process used to manufacture the processor, and the devices may be, as a side effect, very sensitive to variations that normally occur during manufacturing, causing a few cells to deviate significantly from the average in terms of the minimum voltage required for them to operate correctly. The variations may cause a failure of a bit in the cache memory line.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.